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Veracruz embraces World Half Marathon

11 November - Veracruz, Mexico  The rarefied
atmosphere of the World Half Marathon Championships is generally vastly different from the
mass participation that has become symbolic of the big city marathons.

Here in Veracruz, the organisers of the 9th IAAF
World Half Marathon Championships have been altering all that.

Of course, the Championship races themselves remain the
domain of the worlds elite runners coming to Veracruz from over 50 countries -
but around the main event it seems like the whole population of this major port on
Mexicos east coast is either running in one of the three popular races organised
before the Championships or at least planning to line the 21.095 km course that runs along
the Veracruz shoreline.

In the first of these events on Friday, thousands of
youngsters competed  some running and some walking  filling the streets
leading to the Faro with an athletic activity, the like of which has never been seen in
this part of Mexico.

Today, two further popular races are organised, for men and
for women in the hours leading up to the Championship races that will start with the
womens event at 8.00 am on Sunday morning, followed by the mens race at 9.30
am (local time  GMT +7).

The start and finish take place alongside the historic Faro
building, which housed the government of Mexico for a short time during the 1914-1915
Mexican Revolution, when Veracruz became for the second time in its history (the first was
during la Riforma of 1858-1860) the capital of Mexico.

Today,
the Faro may be overshadowed by the towering Pemex building opposite and by the massive
hulls of the cargo vessels in the port it overlooks, but it stands out as a symbol of
Mexicos proud history.

On Sunday, the building will witness another small piece of
history, as it becomes guardian to the first edition of the IAAF World Half Marathon
Championship ever to take place out of Europe  perhaps the start of another
revolution in itself.